Earlier this week, fans were taken aback by DPR Ian (유바롬)’s sudden outbursts on Twitter. The Korean–Australian artist called out his former labelmate DPR REM (Scott Kim) over issues concerning trademark ownership and the rights to the name DPR Live (Dabin).
In addition, Ian, whose real name is Christian Yu, vented his frustration, expressing feelings of betrayal and disappointment towards those he felt had taken advantage of him. Dabin has since responded to the musician’s posts, and it appears that another individual has now been named as the person allegedly responsible for sparking the entire dispute. Here’s the story:
Yesterday (8th October), Dabin (DPR Live)(홍다빈) expressed his frustration on his own Twitter account, stating that while his relationship with REM has been amicable for some time, the real villain is allegedly someone named Jeff, who is reportedly the current CEO of the Dream Perfect Regime (DPR) label. “Jeff has been the only f*ing pain in the a when it came to the whole negotiation process, especially regarding tour contract issues and ending negotiation terms that should have been settled ages ago. His manipulation of everyone in the middle is really getting out of hand,” the singer wrote.
Dabin believes that Jeff is the real reason behind the rift between him and Ian, saying that he has done everything he can to return all the rights to his former labelmate. “I don’t know what the hell you’ve heard or been told by his lying a**, which made you go ballistic, but you never have to question my loyalty to you and DPR, bro. I truly cherish all our moments, and I’ll go the extra f***ing mile, just as you always have, to do the least I can and be that reliable friend to help you get DPR and all its rights back into your hands.”
Dabin also claimed that while he has never accepted REM’s apology for what happened, REM has been a great source of support throughout his legal battle with Jeff. He went on to advise all the artists still signed under DPR not to renew their contracts with the current CEO. Shortly after Dabin shared his side of the story, DPR’s visual artist Jiahn Sohn responded to one of his posts, saying that the entire situation could have been avoided if he and everyone involved had been more transparent with Ian about matters relating to the label.
“You could’ve always reached out, but I don’t think anyone’s heard from you in a long time — definitely not Ian. Also, it didn’t seem like anyone knew you were dealing with Scott behind the scenes, even if you had noble intentions. Why did it take him exploding for you to speak up? I love you, bro, but there’s still a lot that should and shouldn’t have been done,” he wrote.
Ian also responded, asking for solid evidence, saying he could no longer trust anyone after all that he had endured. At the time of writing, neither Dabin, REM, nor any of the artists under DPR have shared further updates regarding the dispute. The label and its CEO have also yet to issue an official statement. Let’s hope things don’t get worse from here.
